What is New Age Spirituality? New Age Spirituality is a movement which brings together monism (all is one) and pantheism (all is good) with Eastern spiritual techniques. The idea is that, if we can overcome ignorance of our true nature and dissolve our separateness from each other and from god, we can attain higher consciousness and collectively evolve beyond our pathological behaviors.
What is New Age Spirituality? 10 Questions
- A lot of the newness of the New Age Movement of the 1970s and 1980s has worn off as it has become more mainstream. Although New Age/New Spirituality beliefs have never been uniform, a central hope continues to be that humanity can raise itself up by tapping into what within? god
- If you could take a mystical eraser and erase all distinctions between you and others, you and the planet, and you and God, you would arrive at a world in which everything is one with everything else. What is the philosophy called that teaches that all is one? monism
- The New Spirituality denies the distinction between creation and what? Creator
- What drags us down is not our sinfulness but rather our ignorance of our true nature, which is what? divinity
- If we do not master the possibilities of godhood in this life, we will have endless other opportunities for advancement, according to what belief? reincarnation
- We can tap into our unlimited divine power through meditation, visualization, chanting, or yoga in order to attain a higher level of what? consciousness
- New Spirituality teaches that, at their core, all religions teach that everything is god, which is a philosophy called what? pantheism
- Our pathological behaviors are caused by our belief that we are what from God and from each other? separate
- According to New Spirituality, God is less of a He or She, and more of a what? it
- Rather than reading the Bible in order to determine its plain meaning, New Spirituality encourages a way of reading which requires special knowledge and yields secret insight. What is the word for this type of knowledge? esoteric
What is New Age Spirituality? 10 Terms
- New Age – A movement beginning in the 1970s and 1980s which looked to a coming era of spiritual utopia through esoteric teachings and Eastern religious practices
- Monism – the philosophical belief that “all is one”; we are all just waves in the ocean
- Nondualism – the monistic belief that all dualities such as body and soul, subject and object, good and evil are nonexistent; rather, what exists is an all-comprehensive oneness
- Pantheism – everything that exists in the great oneness of reality is divine; God is not a personal and relational being but an impersonal force or principle
- God/Christ-consciousness – an elevated level of consciousness that allows us to experience ourselves as manifestations of the divine as well as our unlimited divine power
- Spirit guides – a disembodied being who becomes a person’s spiritual master, often accessed through channeling or mediumship
- Reincarnation – the belief that, at death, we are reembodied as another being
- Paranormal – extrasensory experience which is not scientifically explainable; often associated with ESP, telepathy, contact with spirit guides, and out-of-body experiences
- Visualization – a method of creating your own reality through the strength of your own divine consciousness
- Guru – a personal spiritual teacher; this term which originated in Sanskrit and is used throughout Eastern religions is also used to refer to teachers of New Age Spirituality
What is New Age Spirituality? 10 Quotes
Our Identity
“In contrast to your personal self, there is also an impersonal self that is with you for every moment of your existence in this lifetime. This impersonal self is NOT your intellect and body. It is the invisible intelligence that animates all of life.”
—Wayne Dyer, “Polish the Lens and Meet Your True Self”
“I have decided that I am an Individuation of Divinity, an expression of God, a singularization of the singularity. There is no separation between me and God, nor is there any difference, except as to proportion. Put simply, God and I are one.”
—Neale Donald Walsch, “At Year’s End, Another Look at Life’s Most Important Choice”
“Spirituality for me is recognizing that I am connected to the energy of all creation, that I am a part of it and it is always a part of me.”
—Oprah Winrey, The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations (New York: Flatiron Books, 2017), 12.
What is New Age Spirituality? “Spirituality for me is recognizing that I am connected to the energy of all creation.”
Truth
“The Truth is inseparable from who you are. Yes, you are the Truth. If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time. The very Being that you are is Truth. Jesus tried to convey that when he said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’”
—Eckart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (New York: Penguin Books, 2016), 71.
Making the World Better
“The point of human life is to recreate ourselves anew in each golden moment of Now in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about Who We Are….[Life] is an eternal expression of a singular spiritual entity that has no beginning and no end.”
—Neale Donald Walsch, “My Third Answer to the 21 Questions Posed Here”
What is New Age Spirituality? ““The point of human life is to recreate ourselves anew in each golden moment of Now in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about Who We Are.”
“Through the authority of loving thought, we are given the power to turn any situation that is not love back into love, starting with thinking about it differently….And miracles are summoned by conviction. Conviction can be seen as an attitudinal muscle that gives us strength to see beyond appearances and invoke the possibilities that lie there.”
—Marianne Williamson, The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles (New York: HarperOne, 2012), xiii-xiv.
Death
“As people around you pass away, you become increasingly aware of your own mortality….There is enormous potential there for spiritual flowering….It’s your last chance to go beyond identification with form…It’s the contemplation of death and the acceptance of the impermanent nature of the human form that opens up, if you accept it.”
—Eckart Tolle, “Death and Dying”
“Learn to be comfortable with the concept of infinity, and see yourself as an infinite being.”
—Wayne Dyer, “A Powerful Meditation to Banish Your Fear of Death & Endings”
Influence of New Spirituality
“While nowadays eight-in-ten Christians say they believe in the God of the Bible, six-in-ten believe in one or more of four predominant New Age beliefs, including the belief in psychics, reincarnation and in astrology. Even though some of these can be easily identified as contrary to biblical truth, there are other beliefs within New Age that have subtly trickled into the church.”
—Rosa Elias, “Opinion: Christians Should Reject the ‘New Age’ Movement”
What is New Age Spirituality? “While nowadays eight-in-ten Christians say they believe in the God of the Bible, six-in-ten believe in one or more of four predominant New Age beliefs.”
“We are in the presence of a powerful pagan/Gnostic theological agenda, claiming to be spanking new, objective and scientific, but as old as the hills. It is my belief that this trend in biblical studies is part of the setting in place of a pagan reconstruction of human culture for the planetary era.”
—Peter R. Jones, “The Paganization of Biblical Studies”
2 Questions about New Age Spirituality for Christians to Consider
- What are 3 significant differences between Christianity and the New Spirituality?
- Proverbs 1:7 tells us that true knowledge begins with fearing God. Why is it important for us to recognize that God is God and that we are not?
